Necrosauridae

Palaeovaranidae, formerly known as Necrosauridae, is an extinct clade of anguimorph lizards known from the Paleogene of Europe. They have sometimes been recovered as members of Varanoidea. It contains three genera.

Necrosauridae

Patricia Holroyd, University of California Museum of Paleontology · CC BY 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
AnguimorphaPBDB
Diet
carnivore, insectivorePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 55 million years on record.

The record covers at least 89.8 Mya to 33.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 93.9 Mya to 15.98 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 6 of 81 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 6 of 81 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 56 of 81 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 12 of 81 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 1 of 81 occurrencesMiocene95–93 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences93–90 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences90–87 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences87–85 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 1 occurrence82–79 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences79–77 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences77–74 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences66–63 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences63–60 Mya — about 2 occurrences60–58 Mya — about 3 occurrences58–55 Mya — about 4 occurrences55–52 Mya — about 6 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 4 occurrences50–47 Mya — about 3 occurrences47–44 Mya — about 3 occurrences44–41 Mya — about 3 occurrences41–39 Mya — about 3 occurrences39–36 Mya — about 14 occurrences36–33 Mya — about 17 occurrences33–31 Mya — about 5 occurrences31–28 Mya — about 5 occurrences28–25 Mya — about 1 occurrence25–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences89.8 Mya33.9 Mya95 Mya14 Mya

81 occurrences of Necrosauridae on record, most of them in the Eocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

81 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

26 formations

Perrière — 44.37°N, 1.73°EPerrière — 44.38°N, 1.43°EPerrière — 44.35°N, 1.73°EFort Union — 41.30°N, 107.74°WFort Union — 44.91°N, 108.93°WFort Union — 46.05°N, 104.48°WPerriere — 44.35°N, 1.73°EPerriere — 44.37°N, 1.73°EQuercy Phosphorites — 44.27°N, 1.63°EBorgloon — 50.85°N, 4.82°EWillwood — 43.95°N, 107.57°WWillwood — 44.50°N, 108.00°WWasatch — 41.70°N, 109.00°WAguja — 29.32°N, 103.52°WLower Headon Beds — 50.63°N, 1.55°WArgiles d'lignite du Soissonnais — 49.33°N, 2.66°EMilk River — 49.10°N, 111.80°WJudith River — 46.42°N, 109.27°WDjadokhta — 41.70°N, 106.80°EBissekty — 42.12°N, 62.66°ETienen — 50.82°N, 5.10°EBaruungoyot — 43.49°N, 101.13°EConglomérat de Cernay — 49.27°N, 4.10°ELignites de Soissonais — 49.08°N, 4.03°ECalcaire de Saint-Ouen — 49.13°N, 3.35°EMortemer — 49.89°N, 0.83°ESan Jose — 36.50°N, 107.00°WCorca — 42.02°N, 0.70°ENaran Bulak — 43.47°N, 100.37°ESespe — 33.83°N, 117.71°W

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The named rock units Necrosauridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 44 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Necrosauridae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Necrosauridae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

1,242 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 61 sites for Necrosauridae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

34 references

Each of the 81 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 22 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Necrosauridae

Credit
Patricia Holroyd, University of California Museum of Paleontology
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAnguimorpha through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hoffstetter 1943